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Fast Food Delivery War Heats Up

Online food ordering has become a multimillion dollar industry globally, so much so that this has literally upended the traditional delivery model to the detriment of small players in the market.

Dominoes, one the world's leading pizza delivery companies has been spearheading its online performance, with the company CEO declaring that it is a tech company delivering food rather than a food company using tech.

This mentality shows just how far the industry of delivery has advanced over the last decade. In several countries in the West and Far East, food delivery has become the de facto lunch and dinner option.

In fact, the growth of this industry has made players like Just Eat and Delivery Hero in Europe push into new frontiers.

In Iran, the market has not been won by any of the local players just yet, and first mover advantage is not a guarantee of success.

So far, the Islamic Republic hosts sites such as Zoodfood, Bodofood, Reyhoon and the latest Chilivery.

As more people order online, there will be ever more candidates hoping to take down the one that went before them. Things have really just heated up with the arrival of Chilivery in the new Iranian year (started March 20), as they have a great deal of business clout.

The newest of the bunch is backed by seasoned startup professionals the Sadeghian cousins and the management skills of Iranian-German national Pedram Assadi who has previously worked on several startups globally.

Their business strategy does not differ from their competitors too much, but their supporting sites may give it an advantage in the long run.

With the Sadeghian family running successful websites like NetBarg, Iran's biggest online deals site, they can push their new product through their existing network.

NetBarg leads its nearest competitor Takhfifan by more than double the hits.

Chilivery also plays into their wider portfolio, such as the site Tick8 that may integrate food deals into event deals.

The new food delivery site seems to be closing in on its more established competitors, including the relatively well-funded Reyhoon.com, according to Similarweb.com.

The new food delivery site currently has over 66,700 hits to Reyhoon's 81,000, despite the fact that the latter has been online for over a year.

It also fares well compared to other food delivery websites. Bodofood, one of the first movers in the market, has actually dropped compared with the new entrant with only 30,500 hits so far this year.

However, the new entrant has a lot of work to do to catch the market leader. Similarweb.com puts Zoodfood at over 335,600 hits per month, catching up with which poses a formidable challenge.

However, stats about visits converting into orders has not been released to customers.

More and more Iranians are purchasing mobile phones, with over 9 million people holding MCI SIM cards in Tehran alone, 5 million owning MTN-Irancell cards and some 900,000 possessing RighTel cards.

As more people upgrade their aging phones and opt for Android-based ones, the growth of mobile apps will likely give an additional boost to food delivery sites.

Under the circumstances, the business of food delivery websites is bound to grow further in the coming months and years.